China Soft Packaging Group has ordered three 11-m-wide monoslit giant slitter/rewinders from GOEBEL.

For years, there has been close mutual trust between the two companies. "It is a pleasure to be able to offer our customers solutions and develop these for them, enabling production efficiency and production performance to be increased," says Dr. Ralf Enderle, managing director of GOEBEL.

One machine is currently being packed in Darmstadt for transport to China. A total of 15 large wooden cases will be required for this; the three largest cases are up to 17 m long each and weigh up to 34 tons. They contain the winding section of the machine, the slitting unit, and the web infeed frame of the machine.

In a few days, the machine will reach the Port of Hamburg via heavy-goods transport. There, it will be loaded onto large container ships. It will take five weeks until the boxes reach the province of Fujian Fuzhou, P.R. China. Commissioning is planned after reassembly at the works together with the customer. During this time, a team of experienced GOEBEL employees will monitor the assembly and will be at the customer’s disposal for some further days for on-site training.

Setting New Standards

The 11-m-wide GOEBEL monoslit giant sets new standards. Within three months, several thousand parts were assembled and more than 3,000 m of electric cable were laid. A particularly impressive component is the grooved roller. It has a length of 11,370 mm. The shaft has 5,450 grooves of approximately 1 mm width, distributed over the entire roller width. This means that it is possible to slit finished rolls, which are between 300 and 3,300 mm wide, in 2 mm graduations. Slitting is carried out using razor blades that engage precisely into these grooves.

The slitter/rewinder accommodates stock rolls with a diameter of maximum 1,500 mm and processes them into finished rolls with a maximum diameter of 1,200 mm. The unwind width can be selected by the customer; it is between 9,400 mm and 10,400 mm. In the future, 18 winding stations will be available for 24-hr production processes of films with a thickness of 10–80 μm.

The test run in Darmstadt was more than satisfactory. "Over the entire speed range of zero to 1,500 mpm, the machine runs extremely smoothly", says Dr. Hans-Peter Bauer, head of design engineering at GOEBEL. "That is unique for a slitter/rewinder with these dimensions". In addition, the noise level was considerably lower than the required noise emission value.

The peripherals and the internal power supply were redesigned, too. The setup of the machine takes place at ground level; costly foundation works and cable ducts are a thing of the past.

China Soft Packaging Group produces 350,000 tons of plastic films a year and wants to increase its production by 50%. Convinced of the quality and the technical solutions, the customer commissioned GOEBEL with the construction of three 11-m-wide machines. For years, there has been close mutual trust between the customer from China and GOEBEL. "It is a pleasure to be able to offer our customers solutions and develop these for them, enabling production efficiency and production performance to be increased," Dr. Ralf Enderle says.